Sunday, December 27, 2009

Lesson of the day: neckties and Islam

In Islam, it is forbidden ("haraam") for men to wear silkneckties. Shaykh Muhammad S Al Munajjid explains:

The scholars are agreed that it is permissible for women to wear and use pure silk, and that it is haraam for men to do so, because of the hadeeth of ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him), who said that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) took a piece of silk in his right hand and a piece of gold in his left, held them aloft and said: “These are haraam for the males of my ummah and permitted for the females.” (Reported by Ibn Maajah, 2/1189).

Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, of the London Mosque, warns that "men and women sometimes are so indistinguishable that in the streets people are mistaken one for the other" and the purpose of this rule, in part, is to maintain the distinction.